Summer ’24 Wrap-Up: Long Time, No Talk & Happy Fall!

Hello, everyone!

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve last written on here. I hope everyone in the book blogging community (and beyond, of course) has been doing well! It’s been a rather hectic past few months for me — so much so that I haven’t gotten much reading in (I’ve strangely found myself pivoting toward video games in my relaxing/free time of late). I’ve read a few books, though, so I thought I’d mention them in this little update!

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Books

• The Dark by Lemony Snicket [children’s, picture book]
• The Seeing Stone (The Spiderwick Chronicles, #2) by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black [middle grade, fantasy]
• Shouldn’t You Be in School? (All the Wrong Questions, #3) by Lemony Snicket [middle grade, mystery]
• The Demigod Files (Percy Jackson & the Olympians companion) by Rick Riordan [middle grade, fantasy/short stories]

• Still Life by Jay Hopler [adult/doesn’t apply, poetry]
• Hilda and the Troll (Hilda, #1) by Luke Pearson [middle grade, graphic novel]
• The Girls by Emma Cline [adult, historical fiction/literary]
• Goldfish Ghost by Lemony Snicket [children’s, picture book]

Of the books I’ve finished over the summer, I’ve loved all the children’s/middle grade stories to bits! The post-humous poetry collection by Jay Hopler was a bit of a different read for me, but I’m glad I read it, and would like to reread it a time or two still.

The only novel I’ve finished over the last few months was Emma Cline’s The Girls which in a lot of ways reminded me of The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. It’s been lauded for its lavishing prose and imagery and relies on it heavily. It also has a somewhat detached/”other” narration, though it isn’t marketed as such. Unlike The Virgin Suicides, though, The Girls seemed to lack any level of subtext — which is made worse by the wanting text itself. The novel worms its way through to the end without saying very much or giving significant beneath-the-surface insights into any characters other than perhaps the narrator (I’m not sure you can really call her a “protagonist” as the story happens more around her rather than because of her, made especially evident by the distant, deflated finale). If you’ve read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts and whether you loved it, hated it, or otherwise!

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Films & TV

I’ll keep this section brief, but I wanted to recognize some of the movies I saw for the first time over the last few months! I really enjoyed all of these. I also rewatched The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes twice and a bunch of other favorites too.

The main shows in my circulation over the summer have been:

I’ve also started rewatching Gilmore Girls for the gazillionth time (it’s an autumn tradition!) which I always love.

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Video Games

I don’t think this is a section I’ll consistently have in these wrap-ups going forward but since I’ve been spending so much more time with them lately, I feel it only fit to mention some of my recent favorites!

I’ve played a lot of The Sims 4 in my time, and it’s been the extent of my “gaming” for the most part (that, Hollow Knight, and some Pokemon). For whatever reason, I had the urge to try something different these last few months, so I went ahead and got Fallout 3 on Steam, and it’s been my go-to fun activity lately! I’ve finished the main quest and once I finish or tire of side quests, I think I’m going to try a fantasy RPG for the first time with The Witcher III. Otherwise, Potion Craft is a nice cozy game I’ve been playing when I want something a bit more peaceful and one I’ll continue returning to a while longer!

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Life Updates

I’ve not been one to really share life updates but considering it’s been so long since I’ve been active, I thought I’d share some bullet points!

• Accumulating and managing inventory for my used “tiny” bookstore (think a tiny home for books or a stationary bookmobile) is keeping me very busy but is going well! It’s still a very long way’s off before actually opening but every step is a step closer.
• My once a week volunteering at my local library has been bumped up some for the upcoming annual book sale (volunteers get early picking which is exciting!).
• I’ve made a little writing progress on a novel I’d shelved for a while which I’m happy about! I’m hoping to start a new one in November, so that’s a loose deadline for me to move into and finish act three of my current project. (We’ll see how that goes!)

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I’m very excited as we (in the northern hemisphere, anyway) move into fall! I have high hopes for the next few months and while I’m not sure if I’m necessarily fully “back” to blogging, I’d love to be more active again, especially in reading others’ posts. Overall, I’m excited for what’s next which is more than I could’ve said for a while!

Have you read/watched/played any of the things I’ve mentioned in this wrap-up? Did you like them? Why or why not? What books did you read over the summer? Any favorites? Are you as excited for fall as I am? I’d love to hear your thoughts below!